Not true. Schools look at your app as a whole, not just this silly test. Besides, your letters and research experience are way more important.

Check a thread I recently posted titled "MGRE -- Should I even bother applying now." I am a pretty unconventional applicant. Based on the responses I got from a couple of Director of Graduate Studies at various schools, a good MGRE score of 700+ (and 750+ for some schools) would have made be competitive. But I guess that's no longer true.

Not true. Schools look at your app as a whole, not just this silly test. Besides, your letters and research experience are way more important.

Check a thread I recently posted titled "MGRE -- Should I even bother applying now." I am a pretty unconventional applicant. Based on the responses I got from a couple of Director of Graduate Studies at various schools, a good MGRE score of 700+ (and 750+ for some schools) would have made be competitive. But I guess that's no longer true.

I see it. Really you are fine. You may not want to apply to too many top schools though, and you definitely don't need to apply to like 17-25 schools. That's expensive. Pick some schools you think would be a good fit. If you're really set on getting into a fancy one, try a Masters degree first somewhere. This is what I did. It gives you a chance to not only build up an awesome app profile (masters thesis, new start with grades, advisors), but it also gives you a better taste for research and what grad school is like. Further, it let's your research focus narrow so that you know where you'd like to go based on faculty.

Edit: Also I just want to say that obviously I'm not on an admissions committee or anything (probably no one on this website is), so maybe talk to your advisor and/or one of your letter writers about this!

I got 49% on the September test and felt like there was no way I topped that score on the October test. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I got 55%. It's not a great score but it's good enough for my purposes.

junglemath wrote:I got 49% on the September test and felt like there was no way I topped that score on the October test. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I got 55%. It's not a great score but it's good enough for my purposes.

I feel the exact same way. The fact that I didn't really study all that much, and that I was running on 2 hours of sleep, I am actually happy with my 680. I just know that I'll never take this stupid test again!

I got an 800 (76th percentile). The rest of my application is quite strong and I was hoping to be competitive for top programs. I was hoping to have an outstanding application but I didn't do as well as I had hoped on the exam. Do you think this score rules out or practically rules out the possibility of me getting in to places such as MIT/UChicago/Harvard, if the rest of my application is quite good?

reiszszsz wrote:I got an 800 (76th percentile). The rest of my application is quite strong and I was hoping to be competitive for top programs. I was hoping to have an outstanding application but I didn't do as well as I had hoped on the exam. Do you think this score rules out or practically rules out the possibility of me getting in to places such as MIT/UChicago/Harvard, if the rest of my application is quite good?

I've heard a lot of places that 800+ isn't really distinguished between that much, even top 5 programs. Just look at the threads on this forum about it. At the very least they will look at your application with that score.